No1
by Tea-StainedBrain
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi is a 20-year-old NEET and shut-in. His life would be transforme because of his dense mother's picking up a suspicious flyer recruiting handsome men with hefty pay. After a series of accidents, Tsuna reluctantly became part of the competitive host industry, slowly changing himself for the better or worse. This fic is a more realistic take of host club.


**No.1  
**

Summary : Sawada Tsunayoshi is a 20-year-old NEET and shut-in. His life would be changed because of his dense mother's picking up a suspicious flyer looking for handsome men with hefty pay. After a series of unfortunate incidents, Tsuna reluctantly become part of the competitive host industry, slowly changing himself for the better or worse. This fic is a more realistic take of host club.

**Warning : Dark and angsty themes (eg. Hikkikomori)  
**

* * *

**#1 You have to become No.1**

In a few moments from now, no one would have imagined what Sawada Tsunayoshi, 20, of Namikori would have become. Nor Sawada Tsunayoshi himself would have imagined it.

Right now, he is lying down lazily on his bed engrossed with his phone, playing the latest idol mobile game.

"Tsu-kun!" a woman's voice could be heard from outside.

"..."

"Tsu-kunnnnnn!" More persistently.

"Yeah— what is it now?" replied 'Tsu-kun' irritatedly.

Then a certain pamphlet was shoved under the door.

"Look at this! Isn't this a wonderful?"

Knowing that his mother would keep nagging and not give him food if he refused her when she is like this. Tsuna quickly cleared a mission on his game and picked up the pamphlet for a quick look.

The pamphlet went:

'Help wanted: Able-bodied, handsome men required to wine and dine with as many women as their schedules permit. Educational requirements: None. Salary: Enough to make a salaryman gag.'

The son rolled his eyes, "This is a very suspicious job, of course."

He could 'hear' his mother pout on the other side of the door, "But Tsu-kun. Since you didn't finish high school, you can't be picky..."

"Oh yeah, I'm a NEET* and a hikkikomori** ! Thank you very much."

"Tsu-kun..."

Sighing, he picked up his phone and started again, "Also, I'm neither 'able-bodied' nor 'handsome'! I'm not born for 3-D girls either"

His mother now sighed as well, "But you haven't been out of that room for almost a year now, so how will I know that you are 'handsome' or not! Also, you have good genes from your dad! You should be fine!"

Tsuna would eye rolls had he not had to pay intense attention to the new mission on his game, "Well, I took after you. I am so girly that I was bullied and traumatized. That's why I'm like this, remember?"

This clearly pissed his mother. Before Tsuna could apologize, his normally sweet mother Nana changed her tone of voice to a very cold, scary one, "Okay, I'll not pay for your Love Live Umi collection and whatever Love Live CDs you have ordered."

This made Tsuna put down his precious phone and opened his long-shut door. He never heard his mother speak like this.

"O-Okay, I'll go!" the brunet said hesitantly.

—

That evening, Sawada Tsunayoshi was out of his house after almost a year. Of course, he was anxious of people and he almost vomited. But for the sake of LOVE LIVE!, he could do it!

While Tsuna was incanting to himself about Umi-chan his fav character, he managed to reach the place he is supposed to come for an interview. It looked like a normal office building, which really surprised him. He could see a sign on building directory written "Decimo, 2F. 21.00-03.00". It could totally pass as a normal bar from the outside. Does he get the place right?

Soon, he spotted two flashily dressed young men. They wore expensive suits with unbuttoned shirts. Both have 'host style' bleached and dyed hair. This contrasted his almost invisible appearance, long hair with bangs covering half of his unshaved face. Baggy and unfashionable clothes he had worn since middle school. In fact, his jeans were now too short for his legs.

The two fashionable men seemed to notice this certain gloomy-looking and out-of-place boy.

"Oi, what are you doing here, loser?" the taller man asked unfriendly.

Tsuna was about to panic again. The guy's face and attitude overlapped with his bully from middle school...

"A loser guy like ye will just bring bad luck to the shop," the other man roughly grabbed his collar and pushed him down on the floor. Tsuna then felt a few kick and himself rolling around the concrete. This has been a while, but he was sort of used to it already.

"What are you guys doing?" Tsuna heard an strict authoritative voice, so he looked up. Only to see a black-haired man with a fedora and weird sideburns. Before he knew it, his abusers bowed 45 degrees to the person and ran away.

Then this man offered his right hand to him, "Take my hand, boy."

However, Tsuna pushed his hand away rudely, snarking "I can stand up myself".

This perked the older black-haired man's interest. He smirked before asking, "So, "loser" huh? What is your business here, Mr. Loser?"

Annoyed by the new nickname, Tsuna scoffed, "My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi. I'm here for an interview."

At that, the fedora man chuckled as if it was the funniest thing ever. Tsuna noticed his features under the fedora, thinking that this man is probably not Japanese from his looks.

"This way, Mr. Loser-Tsuna" the taller man smirked and gestured the way to the stairs. He was led to the second floor of the building. Outside was a plain door with black film screened so you couldn't see inside.

"Enter." the black-haired foreign man ordered. Tsuna could feel he had the natural authority and Tsuna couldn't help but follow.

As he entered he was led to a room that looks like any normal guess room. Inside was another foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes. He noticed that the bad hosts just now, the fedora man and this blond guys are all good-looking and in fashionable suits. Maybe, this place is not for him after all...

"Sit." The blond guy told him bluntly.

The brunet did so tensely.

"Introduce yourself."

Tsuna gulped, clearing his throat before he began, "Sawada Tsunayoshi. Age: 19. From Namimori. I have a 4-year working experience as a NEET. Meaning I didn't finish school and am unemployed, yeah..."

Tsuna glanced sideways, noticing that Reborn was standing cross-armed quietly by the door observing him.

"So why do you suddenly want to be a host?" asked his interviewer disinterestedly.

Tsuna went silent for a moment before answering, "I didn't finish school and my mum thought this would be an easy job for me..."

"An easy job...?" his interviewer was clearly upset by his choice of word, "Clarify yourself, maggot."

Tsuna sighed and continued, "A job which just involves fooling money out of women."

This certainly does not please his blond interviewer, who then scanned him from head to toe condescendingly. "Look at yourself, maggot! A child who just leeches off their parents. I wonder if it's better or worse than leeching off girls? At least we work very HARD, maggot!"

Tsuna wanted to retort but the man was right. He had nothing to say... so he could only look down and stare at his feet.

Glancing at the boy once more, the blond interviewer sighed, waving his hand at the door, "Thanks for your efforts, but sorry. Goodbye."

Tsuna stood up and was about to quickly get away from this place as soon as possible. However, he forgot about the raven-haired foreigner completely.

His wrist was now gripped tightly and forcefully by the man by the door. "Stop. Where are you going?" said the man.

"Home." Tsuna gruntled annoyedly. Just let him go already!

"It seems you misunderstand us," the man smiled devilishly. The grip on his wrist tightened, "A real host doesn't swindle women of their money. We heal women's heart."

At that, Tsuna eye-rolled, "said a man prostitute."

This made his interviewer go "Oi" and the taller raven man grip him harder enough to make Tsuna wince, " It's a rule in our shop not to sleep with women. A smart host never sleeps with his clients. Because once they do that, the clients will never come back to the shop."

Tsuna was not at all convinced, his hand really hurts, "Just LET GO!". He shook the foreigner's hand off harshly. Then there was a sound of glass breaking. Tsuna then realised, to his dismay, that by resisting so hard he just accidentally destroyed the taller man's very expensive-looking watch to pieces.

The brunet looked up to the man and apologized. He saw a smiling face that promised pain and torture...

"So, Mr. Loser-Tsuna. I guess you have to pay this man prostitute 10 million yen for his Rolex Daytona."

Tsuna gulped.

* * *

Against Tsuna's own will, he is back at the same building again. Though this time shaved and wearing a suit, though a cheap basic one, as he was 'persuaded' by his mother (She doesn't know he will be working at a host bar and insist he wear a suit to his first day of job).

As he reached the front door, there was a host smoking. To Tsuna's terror, he recognized the face despite having not seen it for almost five years. He was his bully from his middle school, Uehara Mochida. The kendo captain was very popular, acting like a nice guy outwardly, but is actually an evil schemer behind most bullying of social outcasts in the school. The man is now even taller and ... scarier...

He was shaking to the core.

Mochida noticed the shaking brunet, but he didn't recognize him because of the bushy hair bangs. Still, Mochida sensed some familiar sense of 'bulliableness' from this new guy.

Tsuna was then kicked to the ground by his old bully. He felt some wet spit on his face and hair. "Show respect to your senpai, newbie!" he snarled.

Tsuna stood up and bowed but was kicked again. "You gloomy freak" Mochida said before extinguishing his cigarette on his hand, making Tsuna scream.

"Physical abuse is prohibited in front of Decimo." Tsuna heard another irritated voice from behind. The foot on his stomach was suddenly gone and he saw a tall man with hair as black as raven from the corner of his man is in a neat, buttoned-up suit, uncharacteristic of a host. Wait, did he meet this guy anywhere before?

"A-Ah– Hibari-san, I'm just disciplining the newbie. ha ha"

Tsuna widened his eye at the name. How could he forget the devil of Namimori Middle, Hibari Kyoya! His brain started to panic if this is a reunion plank on him. How could the famous idol boy of Namimori and the notorious disciplinarian of Namimori be working at the same place as him, the bully magnet of Namimori?

The 'Hibari-san' glanced at the pathetic mess of a brunet before punching Mochida effortlessly in the stomach, "No one can discipline employee apart from me in this bar. Get lost or I'll bite you to death."

At that, Mochida bowed 45-degrees and quickly headed into the shop. The mysterious 'Hibari-san' also entered with a 'Hn.'

Just as Tsuna stood up and was about to head into the shop despite his pain. He was kicked again. This time by a silver-haired host with a lot of piercings and scary delinquent look. His abuser clicked his tongue, "Tch. You're in the way, loser."

At this, Tsuna sighed for a nth time of the day. Someone found this reaction funny as he later heard the laugh, "Ha ha. Need a hand?"

A hand was then offered to him by another raven-haired guy, but this one has a shorter hair and taller.

However, Tsuna stood up himself (though not without a wince), "I can stand up myself."

At that the black-haired host laugh and still holding his hand out again, "then let's shake hands. I'm Yamamoto Takeshi! Let's get along!"

Tsuna took the hand hesitantly, "I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi. Just call me Tsuna."

Yamamoto-guy shook his hands eagerly, "Ok, let's get in. I'll introduce you to all of us!"

So here Tsuna is in. As he was walking along the entrance way, he saw a board with many photos of men with strange hairstyle (not that his own hairstyle is any less weird). He saw the biggest picture with the caption"No.1 : Reborn" under it. To his annoyance, it was the picture of the guy who made his life miserable overnight...

Noticing the brunet behaviour, Yamamoto the guide explained to his junior, "This is our club's host ranking. It's common in any host club."

"What do you take into account for ranking?" Tsuna asked.

"Your sales, basically. The more money you make, the higher you become in the ranking. Your base salary is actually worse than the minimum wage so you have to work hard, Tsuna!"

Tsuna nodded, looking at the board again.

It seems that the friendly host beside him is actually No.3. And that silver-haired jerk before is No.2.

While Tsuna understand why a friendly bloke like Yamamoto would be well-liked by ladies, he couldn't understand why a jerk-ish guy like Gokudera would be even more popular.

As if reading Tsuna's mind, Yamamoto continued, "You might have thought that women choose looks over anything. while that's true on first impression, if you are not a good talker, you won't get anyway in the ranking."

True to Yamamoto's words, Tsuna could see that a good-looking but very scary person like Hibari-san is the 5th in the ranking, even if the 4th and the 3rd (Yamamoto) are not as good-looking.

"Erm, isn't that Colonelo guy also working here?" Tsuna asked.

"Oh, so you met him during the interview? Colonelo is a HR manager of the whole Vongola Group. He's not part of this shop."

This confused Tsuna even more, "What is this 'Vongola Group'?"

Instead of Yamamoto answering, a smooth, confident (almost cocky) voice replied "Vongola Group managed several host bars and cabaret clubs all over Japan. It is said to be the biggest. We are one of their flagship clubs."

Tsuna turned around only to see the shop's No.1 host, Reborn

"Reborn-san, Good work today!" Yamamoto greeted with a respectful bow, cuing Tsuna to do the same. Which the brunet did, though reluctantly.

"Yamamoto, you can go get ready." the No.1 host smirked evilly I'll train Sawada personally."

Tsuna could tell this is not going to go well for him...

* * *

Inside the host club was simpler than he expected. There are many sofas and tables, which are arranged in cabaret style.

"This is where you entertain your guests most of the time."

Tsuna nodded. He still felt to angry to look at the No.1 host in the eye, however.

Reborn then moved on to show him a space that looks somewhat pricier than the other part, with some translucent curtain to separate it from the outside.

"This is called a 'private VIP room'. Clients can pay higher to use this space and monopolise their favorite host for her own.

Entering the so-called private room, the Italian host sat, then cued Tsuna to do the same.

As they both make themselves comfortable, Reborn pulled out a cigarette box, "You smoke?"

Tsuna shook his head in refusal. So the older host just smirked and lighted up his cigarette. This irked Tsuna, who didn't like smoking then.

"So you didn't research about our shop at all?" Reborn asked as he exhaled the smoke.

"No." was the blunt reply.

"I bet your mum just found a leaflet in the postbox or something." the older man smirked when he saw a perplexed face on Tsuna.

"I can read mind and understand a person really well just by looking at their eyes. That's the secret to my success," Reborn winked jokingly at the newbie.

Tsuna eye-rolled sarcastically.

Reborn scoffed at that, "you need to learn how to keep your true self in check. Like your sarcastic nature."

"Okay, okay. I'm not here to listen to the bad sides of me, yeah?" Tsuna groaned.

Reborn finished his cigarette and subbed it out on the tray.

He then unexpectedly punched the brunet in the arm, receiving a cry. "I'm the No.1 host as well as the shop manager here, so my words are law here." He then looked at the brunet more sternly, "Not to mention... you owe me a lot"

As Tsuna was about to retort, he was suddenly interrupted (thankfully) by a host with a bleached crew-cut and a very loud voice.

"Manager Reborn! Is this the newbie to the extreme you told us about!?"

The 'manager' sighed and cursed something in a foreign language to himself. Before staring blankly at the loud host, "Yes, Sasagawa Ryohei-kun. Could you please go back and get stationed. He shop is opening soon."

"Okie Dokie~ See ya, newbie~" Tsuna could swear he saw Ryohei dab quickly before going to his station.

Reborn coughed for the brunet's attention, "Ahem— so your work today is..."

* * *

**To be continued**


End file.
